Think Critically: Deductive Reasoning and Mental Models

Background

This Coursera course comes from Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowski, the team behind Learning How to Learn, working with logic professor Adam Trybus of the Institute of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Its subject is the foundations of logic and reasoning.

Scope

The course moves from Aristotelian principles to modern deductive methods, with the aim of letting you build and test arguments yourself. The idea of mental models ties the logic to how people actually picture problems.

Who it suits

• Learners who want a formal grounding in deductive reasoning.
• Anyone who wants to test their reasoning with precise, step-by-step methods.